Secret of the Naga
by Sleepwalking Dreamer
Summary: Long ago, the Naga were scattered and their city destroyed because of Melbu Frahma's greed. Now, thousands of years after their demise, they are forced to rise up again to defend what exists, and find what was lost.
1. Prologue: The Rape of Nagapura

**Secret of the Naga**

_A Legend of Dragoon Fan Fiction Piece_

_By: Sleepwalking Dreamer_

DISCLAIMER:

_The Legend of Dragoon_ © Sony and other affiliates

Chandrakanta and related characters © Sleepwalking Dreamer

NOTES:

As some may have noticed, I have drawn much inspiration from Hindu myth. However, I will not claim that my story is true to the myths and the legends; I am merely inspired by them. Hence, I hope that aficionados of Hindu mythology will not lash at me for whatever inaccuracies and deviations I have incorporated or may have accidentally found their way into this story. I have tried to do as much research as is humanly possible to get everything down accurately, but I must be allowed some room for artistic license and for mistakes as well.

TEASER:

Since the beginning of time, the Naga – a race of half-human, half-serpent beings – have lived on their island of Nagapura in relative peace and security. When Dragons, fleeing from the destruction of their race on the continent of Endiness as the Winglies came into power, came to live amongst them, the Naga prospered as never before. Slowly, the Naga turned Nagapura into a fabulous land of wealth and splendor, where magic – through the interbreeding of Naga and Dragon – has been used to stop death itself, and even to reverse it. Nagapura was whispered throughout the world as a land of beauty and riches, where the people are immortally fair, the dead can breathe again, and the living never feel the dreaded kiss of death.

But all that is left of Nagapura is legend and ruins. In his jealousy and greed, Melbu Frahma rained destruction upon Nagapura, scattering the Naga all across the world, and sending the Dragons back to Endiness. In the end, it was Dragons and Humans who saw to the collapse of Melbu Frahma's plans – the latter to escape Wingly oppression, and the former to avenge the rape of Nagapura. And though it came at the price of their own lives, the Dragons realized that, just as their union with the Naga had given them love, this alliance with Humans would protect those they valued the most.

Now, thousands of years after the Dragon Campaign and two years after the second downfall of Melbu Frahma, darkness once again threatens to create chaos and wreak havoc upon the world. For it seems that Melbu Frahma was cleverer than anyone initially imagined, and his dreams of dominance are about to resume their course once again.

* * *

**Prologue: The Rape of Nagapura**

It had been a night of peace, a night of quiet tranquility that is conducive to deep thoughts and creating new things. She had been taking advantage of the stillness to sit in her meditation room, attempting to weave together threads of magical power to create a powerful spell of protection for her sister Anila. Anila always enjoyed climbing up and down the high mountain crags outside the capital – a dangerous venture, no matter how powerful in magic one might be. So, since it was to be her sister's birthday in a fortnight, she was laying down the foundations for the protection spell, that she would then embed into the jewel of a bracelet she had asked the royal jewelers to make four days ago. In fourteen days, the spell would be completed, and she would present it to Anila with all the pride and happiness that comes with being an elder sister who was watching her youngest sibling step into the world of adulthood.

It was a quiet night, one like many others before, and she thought that it would be the same, that nothing would trouble her world.

But she had been wrong.

She could never have dreamed that it would be so, but now, all that she had feared had come true.

The Winglies had come.

And Nagapura burned.

She raised her eyes to the sky, unable to bear the torture that would come from looking down as her world, the world she had known since her childhood, broke into a million pieces before her. Rank upon rank of Wingly soldiers advanced across a blood-red sky, taking out Naga as easily as the Naga themselves had once hunted fish and birds. Magic blazed all around her as the Winglies first destroyed the city, and then made their way towards the palace.

"Chandra! Chandra, are you still here? Answer me!"

She turned around slowly, and watched as her father emerged from the shadowy interior of the palace. He was currently in the form of a handsome Naga, with jade eyes, hair like spun gold, and emerald green scales glinting over his body. "Father?"

The hand that tightened around her wrist was bloody, the grip strong and insistent, but infinitely tender. "Chandra, you must go from here," he said quietly, pulling her away from the window and leading her out of the room, their scales hissing against the ruined stone beneath their tails. "There are boats at the port, ready to take you to Endiness. You cannot stay here."

She shook her head vigorously. "I cannot leave you here, Father! They will kill you!"

"I _must_ say here," he said quietly, and with his free hand he tightened his grip around the hilt of his sword. "I must do what I can to make sure that the survivors make it out safely."

"Then I will stay with you. I will stay with you and fight. I know how to fight Father, you taught me how yourself."

Jade flared almost to a sunlight green as the words left her mouth. "You will do as I say, Chandra. I will not have you stay here and risk you dying." He gripped her wrist more tightly, and this time, she felt pain bite past the thin gold-and-green scales and through into her flesh. "You are Princess Chandrakanta, heir to the Royal House of Nagapura. Though Nagapura falls, the nation of the Naga shall never be completely defeated, so long as you remain alive."

Chandrakanta shook her head, but more slowly now, a motion borne of sadness and pain. "But I am your child, your own flesh-and-blood. What daughter, what son, would wish to abandon their sire at the hour of their greatest need?"

He smiled at her: that gentle smile that had been there through her victories and her failures – the smile of a father looking one last time upon a daughter he loved. He pulled her into a tight, one-armed embrace. "I know that you would stay if you could, daughter. And I know that you can fight. Soa only knows how useful your skills in arms and in magic would be if we fought together. But I would not have you here. I must shed this form that you see, and I would not have you here to see it."

"But-"

He let her go, and, in a clever move, spun her around so that she was halfway out the door. The look in his eye was serious. "Go, Chandra. I would not have you fall to my poison. Go and find Regole – she will take you and the others back to Endiness. When you get there, I promise, I will find you myself, no matter what happens."

She stared at her father. Could this be true? Was he indeed going to do what he had promised, a long time ago, never to do?

"_Go!_"

She started upon hearing the roar of her father's voice. At that moment, he was no longer her father: he was Raj Feyrbrand, King of the Naga, and a Dragon. In that capacity, he would do all that he could – no matter how extreme – to spare as many lives of his people as was possible.

She turned around, and made her way as quickly as she could through the palace, passing through numerous hallways and doors, until at last, she reached the small, out-of-the-way port that was used by the Royal Family for boating excursions. It was crowded with ships and boats, many of them filled to just above their capacity.

As she approached, she caught sight of a beautiful Nagini; with hair colored the pale blue of shallow waters, and her eyes a piercing deep blue. Her scales, on the other hand, were a remarkable combination of sky blue with hints of silver. No other Naga had such coloring, and so Chandrakanta recognized her immediately as Regole the Sea Dragon in her Naga form.

Regole turned around then, and smiled with relief when she saw Chandrakanta approaching. "Oh, thank Soa that you are still alive! A lot of us though that you hadn't made it out of the palace!"

Chandrakanta offered a small smile, and bowed her head. "Father came to get me."

Regole nodded, and her face turned grim. "Yes, I know." She waved her hand to the ships. "Come now, we must flee from here. Your father is going to put his plan into action, and it would not be a wise thing to be here when he does so."

Chandrakanta nodded, and mutely followed Regole onto the largest ship. What had once been the royal family's pleasure yacht was now turned into a barge for transporting those of the Naga who still remained alive, along with whatever was left of the royal family.

So many were already dead. That was the first thought that came into Chandrakanta's mind as she looked around at those of her family who were on the ship. She saw her mother, Rani Devika, sitting with her sisters Jaswinder, Kalpana, and Anila. She also saw her two youngest brothers, Anand and Shashi, standing close to the rail, looking on with chillingly blank expressions upon the destruction of Nagapura. Her second brother, Murali, and her third brother, Ashoka, were most likely dead, slaughtered when they attempted to stand up against the force of the Winglies. The others on the boat were mostly servants, and a few of the nobles who happened to be staying in the palace that night.

She immediately went to her mother, who seemed still as a statue in her grief, gazing out as the city she had lived, grown up in, and ruled for nigh on five thousand years, was reduced to ash before her very eyes.

Chandrakanta tried to smile at her mother as she reached out, and squeezed her hand. "It will be all right, Mother," she whispered. "Father will take care of himself."

Rani Devika did not move, but her eyes seemed to turn to molten gold in the moonlight, and a single tear trickled down from her eye, cutting a gleaming streak against her soot-covered face like a shooting star across the vastness of the night.

That tear caused her sisters to crack. Anila hiccupped, her shoulders shaking as she started crying, and a sob tore its way out of Kalpana's throat. Jaswinder did not make a sound, but she had been never one to make a sound when crying. She merely bowed her head, her face screened by the fall of her ebony locks, and the only thing that indicated she was weeping was the steady fall of teardrops on her tightly clenched hands.

Chandrakanta did not give way to her tears, though they constantly stung at her eyes. As the eldest daughter, and hence the next ruler of her people after her mother, she had to be strong – or at least, give off the impression that she was so. If her mother could do it, then so could she.

Regole spoke up then. "Now that everyone is ready, we shall leave for Endiness."

Chandrakanta turned to watch as Regole jumped off the ship, splashing into the dark water. A split-second later, a light glowed from beneath the waves, growing brighter and brighter until finally, a huge spray of water went up into the air, and a blue-and-silver Dragon raised its head above the waves. This was Regole's true form.

Regole cut easily and gracefully through the water, and Chrandrakanta sensed that she was pleased to be back in her own shape, and in her element. Regole picked up the chains that were used to moor the ships to the docks when they were not in use, and swam towards the east, pulling the ships along behind her.

Knowing that there was nothing for her to do now, Chandrakanta looked back to the island that she was leaving – the island that had been her home for as long as she could remember. A deep roar pierced the sky, and she felt hope rise in her heart. But it was faint, as brief as a passing wind through the trees.

Her father had pretended, for her sake, but now she knew the truth. Looking at her family and at the people on the other ships, she knew: Nagapura had fallen, its people sent into exile, and it would be no more.

Chandrakanta sank to her knees on the deck, and uttered a soul-wrenching sob.


	2. Chapter One: Resurgence

**Chapter One: Resurgence**

_The sea breeze combed gently through her hair, like the soothing touch of her mother whenever she was troubled and could not sleep, or the gentle caress of the lover she had never met, but always thought of._

_She smiled at her own thoughts, shaking her head. She considered them rather silly, since she was already well past the age of such fantasizing. But there were times, like now, when she wondered what it would be like to have a lover beside her, her hand in his as they strolled down the beach, watching the sun set and stain sea and sky with red and gold, weaving a tapestry of incredible and otherworldly beauty._

_She paused, stopping to watch as the sun dipped behind the horizon, going down into its watery cradle for its rest from its sojourns. She would return to the palace when the evening horns sounded to announce the coming of twilight and the entrance of the stars, the moon, and all the entities of the High Court of the Night. As she continued to look, the sky went from red, to crimson, to scarlet, and finally to purple, and the deep blue vastness of evening started to spread its blanket across the firmament._

_But then, as the sun sent out one last flash of brilliance before disappearing entirely, a bitterly cold wind suddenly sprang up and blew against her, casting sand into her eyes. She immediately closed her eyes against the grit – a natural reaction._

_And when she opened her eyes, everything was different. There was no moon, and there were no stars, though there was no cloud in the sky to hide them. The heavens above her were, instead, nothing but plain and flat and blank. It seemed as if the sky had been ripped off, and there was nothing but the yawning void beyond it._

_She turned around, wanting to ask someone what was going on, but what she saw behind her was ruins upon ruins, buildings toppled over, and their foundations overgrown with plants and vines._

_She opened her mouth, wanting to speak, to cry out, to scream, but no sound emerged from her throat._

_She felt herself moving forward, though not out of her own volition. She felt herself moving over the broken pediment of what had once been the path that led from the palace to the beach, felt her scales rasping over pebbles and cracked stone, but there was no pain, when there should have been pain._

_She continued on, her body seeming to know which direction to go. It was as if some other entity had control over her body, and she was just a passenger in it, seeing all these things through her eyes, though she did not – could not – control a single nerve of her body._

_She moved through passageways both familiar and unknown, walked through doors she had seen before and never encountered. At length, she arrived at a chamber hidden deep within the palace in a room that she had never known was even there._

_She sensed something in the chamber, though she could see nothing. She could feel something cold here, something slimy and foul and disgusting. She could almost smell the evil of its presence; smell the stench of its abominable spirit. Whatever it was, it was something unnatural, something created through the use of the darkest and most twisted magic._

_She sensed movement in the center of the chamber, and realized that, whatever it was that she was sensing, had taken notice of her presence. _

_"Ah, so we meet at last."_

_The voice sent ice through her veins, and she shuddered._

_She heard the sound of movement in the darkness. It did not sound like the hissing of scales, a sound she was familiar and comfortable with. It sounded more like the flesh of a dead animal being dragged over rough stone, and it was not a sound she liked to hear. It reminded her too much of…of what?_

_"It reminds you of how my creator destroyed your home," the voice said, the words coming out of the shadows like sharp icicles. A pair of ruby eyes flashed briefly in the depths of the chamber. "It reminds you too much of how Nagapura fell."_

_She shivered violently as memories tore through her mind: memories of fire, of magic, of pain and blood and death, so much death. _

_She could feel the way the creature's smile shifted the air around her, feel how grotesque it was, how monstrous. "Yes, death: precious, delicious death. And soon, soon, your blood will release the final bindings, and then it will be your soul that I feed on first."_

_She sensed something enormous, something powerful, lunge at her through the gloom, but before she could react, she felt sharp teeth close around her neck, crushing her windpipe in its grasp, choking all breath, all life, out of her-_

"Chandra! Wake up!"

Chandrakanta woke with a start, almost sitting up in her bed as she did so. Her hands immediately went around her neck, to see if that dreadful…thing, whatever it had been…still had her in its grasp.

A hand clasped her wrists gently, and a quiet, familiar voice spoke to her in a soothing manner. "You are awake now, Chandra. There is nothing for you to fear."

Chandrakanta glanced up, and gazed upon the beautiful and ageless face of Charle Frahma. She smiled at the Wingly, and sighed. "Yes, I am. Thank you."

Charle nodded in response, and then gave her a concerned look. "It sounded like a very bad dream, Chandra. What was it about?"

"I…do not want to talk of it at the moment, Charle," Chandrakanta replied as she got out of bed, her tail hitting the carpet next to her bed with nary a sound. She turned, and smiled slightly at the Wingly. "It is not that I do not trust you with this. Of all the people I have come to know here at Ulara, you are the only one whom I know I can trust with anything at all. But at the moment…" She shook her head. "I am sorry, but I find it somewhat difficult to speak of this dream."

Charle sat on the bed, gazing at her for a long moment, before she finally stood up. "I understand, Chandra." In a few moments, her tone shifted from worried to cheerful, as if trying to lift the air of foreboding that lingered in the air. "Now then, why don't you and I go down for some breakfast, hm? I suppose you must be hungry…"

Chandrakanta smiled, and waved her hand. "You go ahead, Charle. I will just get myself ready, and then I will go down."

Charle nodded, and headed out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Chandrakanta sighed, and drifted towards the window, gazing out upon the lovely, rose-filled gardens of Ulara. But her gaze lingered only briefly upon the flowers, for she was soon looking out to the western horizon, towards a land that lived still in her memory, though by now, it was nothing more than ashes and dust and ruins.

She thought of her dream, and shivered. There was something there, sleeping in the ruins of Nagapura: something that was foul, and evil, and powerful in magic.

She straightened, and proceeded to dress herself. She would have to speak to Charle about her dream soon, and what she should do about it.

* * *

Charle stepped on the teleportation plate that led from Chandrakanta's room to the floor below, knowing that her friend and ward would follow in a few moments, as she had promised. At the moment, what bothered Charle was the matter of Chandrakanta's dream.

She had always known, right from the start, that Chandrakanta was prone to dreaming. The poor thing had a particularly traumatic past, one that would forever live in Charle's conscience as among the greatest crimes her brother, Melbu, had committed.

She sighed, and closed her eyes against the pain of memory. The Rape of Nagapura, as it had come to be recorded in the precious annals and books of Wingly history that were kept in Ulara, was among the greatest atrocities committed by her brother. And though she had nothing to do with him and everything he did, she still felt that she should have done something more, other than establish Ulara and offer aid and succor to those who came looking for it from her.

She could never truly pay for the crimes that her brother had committed. The least she could do, during the Dragon Wars and in the many long years afterwards, was to open Ulara to anyone who needed help and was worthy of it. That was why she had offered to guard Chandrakanta, daughter of the Green Dragon Feyrbrand, and extended aid to Rose, the former Dark Dragoon.

But between Rose and Chandrakanta, it was with the latter that she had the longest friendship. Certainly, she was fond of Rose in her own way, but Chandrakanta was something like the daughter she never had. Rose was too strong and hardheaded to want any mothering, so Charle lavished all her motherly affections on the Naga Princess.

When she first met Chandrakanta, it had been in the middle of the Dragon Wars, when the battles were raging the hottest and causing the most sorrow in the world. At that time, Charle had only heard of her: the heir to the ancient Throne of Nagapura, and immortal after the manner of her people, for she knew the secret workings of magic that would keep mortal flesh from succumbing to the natural ravages of time that eventually led to death. She had been sent to Ulara by her own father, who had hoped that somehow, Charle's influence would keep his daughter safe – and to prevent her from doing anything rash.

And Feyrbrand had been right, particularly where it concerned the last part. Though he sacrificed himself willingly in order to aid the Humans by allowing them to become Dragoons, his daughter, upon learning of it, went into such a fit of rage that, had she not been in Ulara, Syuviel would have met an untimely and violent death.

Memory flickered through Charle's mind, that one particular moment in time brought back to her by the force of reminiscence…

_"There is nothing we can do, Lady Charle," said the Wingly spy who had brought her the news. "The Humans and Dragons have united. They will be the force who shall defend Humans and defeat Melbu."_

_Charle nodded, taking the news with much relief and some regret. "I see. That is good news indeed."_

_The messenger looked up, puzzled. "Surely you do not mean that, Lady. After all, it is your brother-"_

_"He ceased to be my brother when he abused our god-sent powers and bent them towards evil," Charle interrupted, her voice harsher than she had intended. She sighed, and shook her head. "No, the person whom the others call leader, and the Humans call tyrant, is not my brother. He is not Melbu. Once, a long time ago, perhaps, but now he is gone. For me, Melbu – the one I once called brother, friend, and companion – is dead."_

_"Lady…"_

_"Go," Charle commanded, waving her hand in a dismissive gesture. "You may take your rest here for the night, and you may take as many provisions as you need for the journey back to Kadessa. I trust you will know what to do when you get there."_

_The Wingly gazed at her for a moment, but in the end, he bowed, and murmured his thanks before turning around and leaving._

_Left alone in her study, Charle sighed, and bowed her head over her folded hands. The unification of Dragons and Humans could mean only one thing: Feyrbrand, Regole, and all the others had yielded their corporal bodies and their freedom so that they would be governed by another species. That meant, then, that Chandrakanta's father was-_

_"Charle?"_

_Charle looked up to see Chandrakanta approaching her. She was not in her normal form – she had adopted that of a young Human woman, with legs instead of the tail that she usually balanced herself on. It was, Charle knew, for the sake of convenience, because it was difficult to go up and down stairs, and even to use teleportation plates, when one had a tail instead of legs._

_But still, there were marks of her true heritage upon her: not the least of all the delicate green shimmer that tinted her golden-tan skin, and the slits that were her pupils in her eyes of burnished gold. The ebony shade of her hair was not all that uncommon amongst humans, but the sheen it possessed, like that of snake scales slicked with water, was quite unusual._

_Chandrakanta approached her. "Was that your informant from Kadessa?"_

_"Yes, that was him," Charle responded. Already, she was readying herself for the question that was to follow._

_Chandrakanta smiled – a smile that echoed hope, the hope that Charle did not feel. "And what news did he bring? Did he say anything about my father, or of the others? Surely they must be doing well; the last information we received indicates that they were doing marvelously."_

_Charle sat down in a chair slowly, and gazed at Chandrakanta with an apologetic gaze. "The Dragons and Humans have united their powers. Your father, and most of his kin – save for the ancient Lord of Dragons – have thrown their lot in with the Humans."_

_The silence, Charle thought, was perhaps the most unbearable. It dangled between her and Chandrakanta like a knife suspended in midair, simply waiting to be cut from its string before it fell down and sliced through the calm._

_It was movement, not words, which broke the stillness. Chandrakanta whirled around, and started towards the door, the magic that she had cast around her form seeming to disintegrate in what Charle realized was the heat and fury of her emotions._

_"Chandra!" Charle called, standing up and chasing after the young Naga. "Chandra! Where are you going?"_

_"I am going to my father – or whoever holds his soul now," Chandrakanta replied, her words spoken through tightly clenched teeth. "Who do those Humans think they are? They have no right to do that to my father! They have no right to-"_

_Charle reached, out grasping Chandrakanta by the arm. "Chandra, listen to me! There is nothing you can do now. It is over!"_

_"There is still something I can do!" Chandrakanta cried, wrenching her arm out of Charle's grasp, though she did not move away anymore. She whirled around, and Charle could see the glimmer of hot tears in Chandrakanta's eyes. "If I can get my hands on my father's spirit, on the jewel that contains it, then I know that I can bring him back! It is not a simple spell, true, but I know that I can do it!"_

_She paused, and the tears streamed down her face in earnest, and she did nothing to wipe them away. "I want my father back, Charle. The war has taken everything away from me: my brothers, my sisters, my mother, and now my father. I want him back, Charle. I want him back."_

"Forgive me for being late, Charle."

Charle looked up, and smiled as Chandrakanta stepped off the teleportation plate – once more, assuming the form of a Human, as was necessary. "How are you feeling?"

"Much better now," Chandrakanta replied softly as she joined Charle at the table, and the servants brought in a variety of fruits and cereals for the two to eat.

Charle leaned forward, offering a small smile. "Would you like to tell me about your dream?"

Chandrakanta seemed to hold her breath for a moment, before she nodded, and told Charle all about what she had dreamt.

As she listened to the story that Chandrakanta told her, she felt herself turning paler and paler, as the pieces of an old puzzle slowly began to fit in her mind. She had listened to Melbu when they were younger, listened to him make plans for the future. Most of them were radical and impractical, and Charle had just laughed them off, thinking them the dreams and ambitions of someone who was younger and hence less knowledgeable of the world than she.

But there had been one particular dream, one particular aspiration, that stuck out the most, amongst all the talk and dreaming that had swiftly turned to madness: _"I want to be like Soa, Charle. I want to make my own Great Tree, with my own one hundred and eight species. I want to make my own world, with my own creatures."_

"Charle?"

Charle snapped back to attention, and looked up at Chandrakanta, who was looking back at her with a worried and intent gaze. "Yes?"

"I was asking you what you thought of my dream," the Naga princess repeated.

"Oh! Your dream." Charle fell silent then. What did she tell Chandrakanta? What was she supposed to say? That she had dreamt of something that Charle thought her brother would never be able to do, but seemed to have done after all?

"Charle?"

Charle looked up at Chandrakanta, and there was a weak smile on her face. She reached out, and touched Chandrakanta's hand. "Chandra, you, of all people, understand the nature of some types of knowledge. You know that there are times when it is better for things to remain unknown and unsaid, especially when that knowledge could possibly bring about the ruin of the world."

Chandrakanta nodded; she understood, because she, like Charle, bore the burden of the knowledge that the Naga had kept to themselves – the knowledge that Melbu had attacked Nagapura for.

"Well then, listen carefully, because there is something that I have to tell you that no one else except Melbu and I knew about…"

* * *

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

**wildmage58** - Thank you for complimenting my story. It has been quite a while since I last wrote any stories for _Legend of Dragoon,_ and to know that it is appreciated it something that truly does warm my heart. Again, I thank you for taking the time to read my work.

**The Sharra** - Yes, it is a new idea, and while it something that I am rather proud of, at the same time it makes me somewhat nervous. I do not know how people will receive this idea, given that it is rather radical. Still, I thank you for saying that it was described beautifully, and for saying that you will keep an eye on its progress. I hope that this new chapter has not disappointed you.


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